I don't attend too many music festivals. I'm not sure if it's because of the crowds or waiting around for the bands I want to hear. And I can't think of many festivals I'd gone to before this summer, but I'm definitely making up for it this year.

First, I went to the Taste of Minnesota. I know it's not a true music festival, but more of a bunch of bad-for-you foods, a few rides and some musical acts thrown in between the food and rides. While I was there, I judged a battle of the bands, hung around with my family after the judging and got a sunburn on my face and neck.

I drove up to the Green Man Festival in Duluth, which was a little under-attended, partly due to heat and rumblings by Duluthians who'd enjoyed camping at Spirit Mountain in years past.
Next, it was on to the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes. It was a two hour wait just to get into the campground (which I've been told isn't very long for this festival) and then on to finding a nice slanted hill where I could park my van and call home for the next couple of nights.
There was no shortage of people at 10,000 Lakes; large crowds hung around the multiple stages and even more people milled throughout the campgrounds.

Even though I'm not a jam band connoisseur, the music was good. Most of the bands played mixes of rock and beat-driven music, with the occasional extended guitar solo or extra music used as filler in between songs.

I went to 10,000 Lakes for the music, but the people watching was probably the best part. Especially when the people are on some sort of substance and they wander around thinking they have to be somewhere, but don't know where to go or how to get there. There are the hippies who do that hippie flowing dance, as well as the music fans who simply listen to the music, hands stuffed in their pockets.

The 10,000 Lakes Festival is a well-oiled machine, with an incredible infrastructure of Porta Potty engineers, security, sound engineers, stage hands and clean-up crews. There are little roads to bring band equipment in and out, and to move people from here to there on little golf carts.

So what's my point, you ask?

These music festivals are the engines driving the jam band economy and I can't think of any other genre of music that's had this longevity. Bands such as the Grateful Dead, to now just the members of the Grateful Dead, and numerous other bands have built an empire playing to an audience that just wants to have a good time and will pay $150 a ticket to have it.

Independent music festivals only date back to the 1980s, but each year it seems like they have a harder time selling tickets. Maybe the interest simply isn't there anymore? Even so, Pitchfork Media is having a pretty big festival this summer, as is Lollapalooza just a week later in the same city.

In the 1990s, alternative music had its Lollapalooza and Warp Tours, and metal had its Ozzfest. Today, there's a pretty big indie music fan base and it seems to be growing, but will there ever be a community of fans who will support it, like the jam band fans?
Only time will tell, but it does seem we're a little behind the curve.

rich@riftmagazine.com
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